Keep On Keeping On

 
     For some, the temptation often is, that as they get older they make excuses for what they can’t do and forget the game of life is not over yet. At 81 I’m grateful I can still be in the bowhunting game.
     When I first took up the bow and arrow as a high school freshman, the only bows that were made were longbows or recurves and are what we refer to as  “traditional” today.  As time grew into years the concept of bows changed. I remember all those changes.  However there was always the challenge of “very up close and personal” that kept me in the traditional game. I have experienced and enjoyed traditional bow hunting as a licensed hunter now for 60 years. Eleven states and provinces and seven big game species later, I still accept the traditional challenge with my recurve bow.
     Hear me correctly, I’m not anti-compound bow. It’s just a choice I’ve made to stay the course with a recurve in my hand. And crossbows? Well, forgive my bias, but they really are not a bow, even though they may help keep some in the modern hunting game.
     One of the great joys of my hunting life has been to be in the home of and hunt with our CBA Executive Director Merle Fredericks and his wife Mitzi.  Merle’s invitation in 2021 to hunt on his “little heaven on earth” whitetail acreage in New York did not end successfully, game wise, for me. In recent years I’ve learned to refocus on the fact that if you want a deer you have to hit one, and then do it in the right place. Well in 2023 my friends the Fredericks and God were good to me and I was able to pull it off, one more time; taking my first out of state whitetail. Not a big one, but a deer none the less. I am grateful.
     As we head into another year and face the uncertainties of 2024, it’s important to keep in the game.  We really do not know if we will see another hunting season. Age could be against us, an accident could occur, or Jesus could return for His people. We know that our country and our world are in a mess. We see Biblical end time events coming ever so closely. But the truth we are to remember is that we are to keep on keeping on for Jesus until He comes or calls for us.
     As long as we have breath we have a responsibility to live for Christ and remain faithful. People are watching. You and I may be the only “Jesus” that some will ever see.  In the home, in the church, at our workplace, or the hunting woods or field, we are to shine for Jesus.  It is our message of hope in Christ that our world needs to see and hear.  That means our time must count for Jesus.
     So I just keep on keeping on. Maybe I can do it again, and in the process share my hope in Christ with someone, one more time.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
​By CBA Founder Rev. David Roose